Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 26.

[p. 49] Atlantic at his own expense. Bear Cove in Hingham was the place selected by my ancestors. The Massachusetts Bay Company owned all the land as far south as Plymouth Company. Accordingly the Colonial Government granted twenty thousand acres, as far back as Weymouth, to these settlers. The land was divided between them. All cedar and pine swamp land was reserved on account of the timber and no man could sell his land without offering it first to the town.

They soon learned how to raise Indian corn and planted grain and vegetables from foreign seed. Apple trees were set out and currant bushes planted. Their clothing was badly worn and their supply of money about exhausted, according to an old diary of the family.

A grist mill at Weymouth was the nearest place to grind corn; it was a long, weary trail. Horses, cattle, sheep and goats had been brought from England. In 1638 the first selectman was appointed and at first it was hard to get the people to the town meetings until a fine of one peck of Indian corn was imposed on everyone who did not attend. There was a fish weir placed at the stream and it is still called Weir river. Plenty of fish was to be had, but the men who planted the weir were allowed to sell the fish for no more than ten shillings six pence a thousand. The first houses were very primitive. For half a century boards and timbers were made out of their forest trees. The tools came from England but the nails were hammered out by native smiths. Bricks were made from native mud and sand. It was an age of colossal chimneys.

Young couples, sons and daughters of the Hingham planters, were given land at Cohasset. Among them, Daniel Lincoln was the first to be found on the Hingham records. Samuel Cushing soon followed and built his house on the hill. He was taxed for twenty-six acres of land. Daniel Lincoln, my ancestor, and his wife Elizabeth, two little boys, Hezikiah and Obidiah, and daughter Elizabeth, had the first home there. He lived here forty years.